Break Times = Good Times

Community Business College has always incorporated 50-minute clock hours for classes. That means each hour a student is here on campus in class, there is a 10-minute break every hour.

Ten minutes provides time to move between classes, but it also provides time to reset your mind. Many a student has told us how they were wracking their brains to get solution to the problem they’re working on, and it wasn’t until they got up, walked around and thought of something else that the answer came to them.

There was even an article out this week about the need to get up and move after you’ve been sitting at a computer for a long time, and get enough sleep each night. According to the study, taking quick walking breaks can extend your life.

And yet…

We have noticed more students hear the words “it’s break time” and instead whip out their smart phones. This happens even when the computer they are sitting at is fully Internet enabled. It’s the smart phone where all the personalized settings are, of course.

When Community Business College provides advanced classes to professionals, the smart phone phenomenon  seems to be more pervasive than people who are take our classes for the unemployed.

What’s Lost

Although checking in with your phone gains you a few updates of what’s happening in the world, or on Facebook, it takes away the physical benefit of just moving around.

Sometimes, a student will find the smart phone so distracting, he or she will forget to use the restroom during break time.

But not only do we lose out on a little exercise when we stay seated at our desks for a long period of time, but we also miss the social interaction that comes with, in this case, taking a class and learning together.

Maybe the answer is setting our smartphones to remind us to take a break every now and then.

Learn other stress management techniques in the Stress Management class Community Business  College offers.